


Rescue Me

by awkwardCerberus



Series: HideKane That Should Have Happened [6]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Coffee Shops, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Shironeki | White-haired Kaneki, hide is a good boyfriend, not an au, theres just a coffee shop in it, this might be a little ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-10 23:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7012852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awkwardCerberus/pseuds/awkwardCerberus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"...Will you rescue me<br/>You can set me free<br/>Will you break these chains<br/>Stop me falling<br/>Will you rescue me<br/>Give me air to breathe<br/>Help these eyes to see<br/>Will you come and rescue me..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rescue Me

**Author's Note:**

> Okay y'all I felt bad for not posting anything in this series for a little bit so I made this thingy late last night/early this morning. Again the ending feels rushed to me, so I'm sorry if it seems that way but I was kinda just running on empty but if it works then I guess we're all winners.
> 
> Also titles and summaries that are song inspired seem to be my new get away from actually writing those that I am bad at, but it looks kinda artsy so I guess that's another win
> 
> Title is from "Rescue Me" by Eurielle

"Hey, Kaneki-senpai, can I get one of those amaaaazing~ espressos of yours?"

The girl leaned across the counter, her hands clasped together begging and her curly pigtails bounced in unison with her upbeat voice. Her smile split her face from ear to ear, and she comically batted her eyelashes at him. The (incredibly large multitude) of pins and buttons on her apron clacked against the faux granite as she leaned across the countertop—her feet beginning to dangle in the air behind her.

"Sure thing, Keiko," Kaneki smiled and pulled a cup from the drying rack near the sink, "but only if you stop calling me 'senpai'. You're my manager; it's...weird."

"No it's not, you're a year older than me." Keiko got up off the counter and stood on her tiptoes, though she was still a few inches shorter than the ghoul, "and besides, I'm your manager so I can call you whatever."

They both exchanged casual laughs before Kaneki turned his attention to the espresso machine. He had her order memorized since day one, an espresso, cream in the shape of a smiley face, whip cream around the edges, and rainbow sprinkles in the middle. It always made him smile when she asked for one, _it sounds like something Hide would order._

This shop was nice and—aside from being slightly more modern, with a few more hipsters, some different music, and a younger, more eccentric manager—reminded him a lot of Anteiku. The other baristas weren't as familial as Koma, Irimi, and Nishiki had been, but Keiko had enough energy to go around.

The automated chime on the door rang out it's repetitive tritone, and Keiko popped up from the register to welcome whoever had walked in. "Welcome to the Honey Bean, I'll be right—oh Mr. Toshimoro! Uncle Tachi!"

Kaneki was more focused on the artistic pouring of milk, but he knew his manager well enough to know she had vaulted over the the counter to hug at least one of the men. A moment later, a pair of chairs scraped back from a table, and a pair of briefcases thunked down onto the floor.

"Hey, Kaneki-senpai, two lattes and a blueberry scone for table three~!"

"Sure. Oh, hey don't forget about your..." Kaneki's voice failed to finish the sentence. When he turned to give Keiko her coffee, he looked across the cafe long enough to see the trademark metallic briefcases that had just come to rest by the leg of a table. His eyes darted between the two men sitting at the table, at their crisp business suits and the faint outline of a badge holder in their right jacket pocket, "...espresso."

There had been so many close calls with the CCG that Kaneki was almost positive his heart was incapable of either stopping or skipping beats. One of the men nodded at him, and he nodded back. He busied himself with making the order, and by the time he had finished with the coffee, and grabbed the scone, Keiko and any other baristas were either already busy or nowhere in sight.

Kaneki sighed, but then sucked in a breath and put on a customer-friendly smile. He stepped out from behind the counter and balanced the serving tray flawlessly in his open hand.

The two Doves looked him up and down suspiciously for a few moments. As a last resort, one of them blinked down at their quinque just to see if Kaneki would flinch. He didn't. The other one's hand twitched like he would reach for his CCG badge. Again, Kaneki didn't flinch.

His voice was calm, but forcedly so, "two lattes and a scone. Is there anything else I can get you?"

"Yes, actually," the one on the left adjusted himself in his seat beginning to pull several photographs from another suit pocket, "I swear I've seen you somewhere before."

Kaneki smiled, again forced, "I've only worked here for a few months. Are you a regular customer here?"

The investigator waved him off and slid various photos across the table, "are any of these familiar to you?"

Kaneki looked at the pictures, hugging the tray to his chest as he thumbed through the them. They were all old photos: Hinami's clothes from when her mother was killed, a couple of her drawings, Jason's pliers that made his skin crawl, a blurry photos of Touka in her rabbit mask darting through an alley, another blurry picture of himself and Ayato on a rooftop, and an old photo of himself from before Rize.

He shrugged, "no, none of them."

"Not even this last one?" The man slid another photo out from the pocket of his jacket, and Kaneki almost lost his composure all together, "promising young man, but he went missing a few months ago. Haven't seen him?"

It was a photocopy of a CCG access card, nothing like what the investigators carried, but certainly enough to grant one access in and out of the building. Below the logo, was a picture of a smiling twenty-something with orange-blonde hair and a dorky smile that would have made lightbulbs jealous. The name had been blocked out, but regardless, it was still Hide.

Kaneki shook his head, but he was unaware how much of his shock his expression gave off, "no, sir. I don't recognize him."

Both Doves thanked him—albeit hesitatingly—and Kaneki excused himself back to the counter. Keiko had reappeared near the shelf of coffee beans, taking inventory by chewing on the end of a pen and tapping rhythmically on the edge of a clipboard.

When she saw her coworker she eyed him too, "you look a little jostled."

"Oh, yeah, it's my boyfriend," he tried to sound serious, but Kaneki couldn't help wiping at his chin when he reached under the counter for his bag, "he's home right now, he's just been really sick this week—the flu, and all that. I told him to text me if anything was wrong and my phone went off earlier. I just need an hour to go check on him."

Keiko turned back to her clipboard, "oh yeah, that's fine. It's going to be slow today, so take your time."

Kaneki was already half way out the door at "yeah". He managed to make it about halfway down the block before he started running. It was another half block before he started going through back alleys.

That had been close, and he knew if he had still been at Anteiku it wouldn't have been a problem. But now he stood out like a sore thumb, he was lucky they didn't have his face memorized by now. But they had a picture of Hide, he stood right there and watched as a Dove tried to get him to identify his boyfriend from a line up.

He came out of an alley by an busy intersection, and barreled through the crosswalk before the light could change. A minivan, a motorcycle, and a car came dangerously close to ramming into him, but Kaneki really couldn't care. He could see the colorful awning and the outdoor sale racks of the bookstore Hide worked at, and he ran those last few steps so fast it felt like he was flying. He tugged open the door and almost fell into the store.

Hide stepped out from behind a book case, arms loaded down with several large hardcovers, "I'll be right with...Kaneki? Hey, what's wrong?"

Hide must have either dropped the books, or set them down too hard, because when Kaneki jumped at the sudden noise, the blond was already holding him. He had his arms around the ghoul, rocking back and forth while Kaneki tried to catch his breath.

"What happened?" Hide asked, quietly enough for only the two of them to hear.

When he didn't get an answer, Hide took the other by the wrist and steered him over towards the "Employees Only" break room. He unlocked the door, and shooed another coworker out. They were alone in the quiet, with just the dull drone of a desk fan and themselves.

"Kaneki," Hide was using _that_ tone again. And, like a soldier following an order, the ghoul responded by melting at the utterance of his name, "what happened?"

"Doves. These—These two Doves came in," he bowed his head on Hide's chest, hands gripping at the fabric of Hide's hoodie like a helpless vice.

The blond ran his hands through Kaneki's hair, across his back, and over the backs of his hand, over anywhere that would convey his touch. Hide's hands finally settled over Kaneki's, but only when he had felt the ghoul shaking in his worry.

"Did they hurt you?"

"N-no. I don't know if they recognized me or not. But, they," Kaneki's voice broke in the back of his throat, like he was drowning in his own half-rationalized fear, "they had pictures. I-I had to look through all these pictures."

Hide, precious, patient, endearing, Hide, with his voice calm and steady and quiet, unwavering. He spoke like he had all the time left in the world.

"What was in the pictures?"

"All of it. Me, Hinami's clothes, Touka, Ayato, those pliers, and...and you," there was a half-choked noise in the back of Kaneki's throat, like something between a scream and a sob that couldn't decide whether it wanted to come out or not, "there was a picture of _you_ , Hide! The CCG is looking for you too..."

The blond let out a quiet laugh for no other purpose than to lighten the mood, "man, they're still trying to find you? Must be really slow over there. Probably 'cause I'm not there to deliver all their papers."

A long moment of low-hung silence tangled between the two of them. They were left to palpitate in the severity of what had happened, and what might have happened. They had lived on the edge now for so long that this had been expected, had been anticipated.

"I don't want the Doves to be hunting you too," Kaneki whispered, though it was more like a pleading statement, into Hide's neck.

Someone like Hide didn't deserve the CCG after him, not like this. After they made him fight, after they threw him into that raid like some common soldier.

Another laugh, and another illuminating smile, "what am I going to do, leave you? Dummy, rabbits die from loneliness. We'll be screwed! And so what if the CCG is after me? They already knew about us; when they called me in for putting bugs on investigators, and following you around to ghoul fights, and for taking down all their posters of you. None of it matters now, Kaneki."

Kaneki threw his head up long enough to convey his apparent shock at Hide's words, before bowing it back down into the blond's hoodie again. How could he be so blasé, so naive, about this? Yes, the investigators didn't recognize Kaneki, but he had done a horrible job of lying to them. And his name tag—shit, he was so stupid that he put his actual name on there—should have been a dead give away, if it hadn't been so long that no one cared anymore. And one of the investigators was his boss's uncle—he was lucky those Doves weren't coming in every day.

"So it got a little close today. But you're here now, okay? So don't worry about it," Hide pressed a kiss into the top of Kaneki's forehead, full of reassurance and sweet nothings of _I'm Right Here_ , "I gotta look out for you too, right? That's what boyfriends are for! So...so don't be so scared?"

_'I gotta look out for you too, right?'_ Hide always said that, always did that. He always looked out for Kaneki. Letting him stay over when his aunt was angry, not telling anyone about Anteiku, coming to him out of nowhere encouraging him that he needed to keep on living and fighting, Hide had looked out for him so much that repayment was impossible.

"Kaneki, you know what I tell you; stop shouldering all this stuff by yourself. I love you, and I'll protect you, okay?" Hide hooked a thumb under the ghoul's chin and tilted his head up until they were eye level. His thumbs brushed under the other's eyes and took away the long tracks of Kaneki's tears, "you always protect me, let me protect you sometimes."

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd so mistakes are mine.
> 
> And also i had to throw in some lil manga Easter eggs in there because let's be honest the recent chapters have been killing the fandom with Hidekane (thanks ishida) not that I'm complaining :)
> 
> Also also, I had a friend ask me what "that tone" was that I write Hide always using and in case clarification was needed, it's essentially just the same tone Hide uses in the show when he and Kaneki are in Anteiku in the ending of Root A, when he's telling Kaneki that he already knew about him being a ghoul. I hope this clears up any confusion.


End file.
